General Finance Corp. v. Penn Nat. Hardware Mutual

17 F.2d 383, 1927 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 973
CourtDistrict Court, M.D. Pennsylvania
DecidedJanuary 15, 1927
DocketNo. 1816
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 17 F.2d 383 (General Finance Corp. v. Penn Nat. Hardware Mutual) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, M.D. Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
General Finance Corp. v. Penn Nat. Hardware Mutual, 17 F.2d 383, 1927 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 973 (M.D. Pa. 1927).

Opinion

JOHNSON, District Judge.

This is an action of assumpsit upon a judgment obtained by the plaintiff against the defendants in the United States District Court for the Western District of Texas, El Paso Division. The judgment was recovered there on the 13th day of January, 1926, for the sum of $118,053.94, with interest and costs. On February 11, 1926, the District Court of the Western District of Texas overruled the defendants’ motion for a new trial.

[384]*384The plaintiff brought this action in the United States District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania on the 16th day of March, 1926, within the time allowed for the appeal from the judgment of the United States District Court for the Western District of Texas. After the plaintiff instituted suit in the Middle district of Pennsylvania, March 16, 1926, within the period of 90 days allowed after final judgment for the taking of an appeal, the defendants on March 27, 1926, took an appeal to the United States Circuit Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit, from this judgment of the United States District Court, on which this suit in the United States District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania is based.

There is nothing on the record to show that the defendant seemed a supersedeas which would prevent execution on said judgment in the Western district of Texas, and which would prevent the institution of suit on it in the United States District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania. On April 28, 1926, the defendants filed their affidavit of defense, raising questions of law as follows, which will be discussed in their order:

“First. The certificate, marked Exhibit A and attached to the statement of the plaintiff in this ease, shows that the judgment was entered against the defendant companies in the said District Court of the United States for the Western District of Texas, El Paso Division, upon the 13th day of January, 1926, and said certificate is dated on the 5th day of March, 1926, being within the time allowed for taking an appeal from said judgment, and, as the certificate now shows, is not such a final judgment as could be offered in evidence in support of the claim of the said plaintiff in this action.”

The question here raised is whether the judgment is sueh a final judgment as can be made the basis of a suit, because the certificate of the clerk of the United States District Court is dated within the time allowed for the taking of an appeal from the said judgment. The judgment in this case became ripe for execution on the 21st day of February, 1926, 10 days after refusal of a new trial.

Section 1666 (U. S. Compiled Statutes 1918, p. 220) provides as follows:

“In any case where a writ of error may be a supersedeas, the defendant may "obtain such supersedeas by serving the writ (of) error, by lodging a copy thereof for the adverse party in the clerk’s office where the record remains, within sixty days, Sundays exclusive, after the rendering of the judgment complained of, and giving the security required by law on the issuing of the citation. But if he desires to stay process on the judgment, he may, having served his writ of error as aforesaid, give the security required by law within sixty days after the rendition of sueh judgment, or afterwards with the permission of a justice or judge of the appellate court. And in sueh eases where a writ of error may be a supersedeas, executions shall not issue until the expiration of ten days.”

Under the law as it now stands, it is necessary for appellant, if he desires to make his appeal a supersedeas, or stay of execution, to serve his writ of error within 60 days of the date of the judgment, giving security for damages and costs. The defendants have not obtained a supersedeas to prevent execution on this judgment, and there is nothing to suspend the right of execution in the jurisdiction of the court entering the judgment, and therefore nothing to prevent suit here.

In A. Coolot Co. v. L. Kahner & Co. (9th Circuit) 140 F. 836, it was held that it is not necessary to allege that no appeal from the judgment has been taken, nor that the time for taking the appeal has expired for the reason that a suit on the judgment can be maintained, even though an appeal has been taken, provided there is no supersedeas. In this ease, Hawley, District Judge, on page 838, said:

“It is .true, as plaintiff in error contends, that a judgment must be final in order to sustain an action thereon. But the judgment in question certainly became final if the time for taking an appeal thereon had expired. A judgment is none the less a final judgment, within the meaning of the rule requiring judgments to be final in order to sustain an action thereon, because an appeal is pending, if no supersedeas bond on appeal is given. The law is well settled that, unless it appears that the appeal, if one had been taken, suspends the judgment in the state where it was rendered, its pendency is no bar to an action in another state on the judgment.”

“Second. The said certificate marked Exhibit A fails to show that within the time allowed by law a writ of error and appeal from said judgment of the 13th day of January 1926, was taken by the said defendant companies to the United States Circuit Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, sitting at New Orleans, La., in said circuit, which appeal was in fact taken and allowed on the 27th day of March, 1926, and the record of [385]*385said judgment removed from the District Court of the United States for the Western District of Texas, El Paso Division, to the United States Circuit Court of'Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, as appears by a copy of the petition for said writ of error, with the assignments of error and the allowance of said writ, together with the writ, hereto attached, marked Exhibit A and made part hereof.”

In A. Coolot Co. v. L. Kahner & Co. (9th Circuit) 140 F. 836, it was held that it is not necessary to allege that no appeal had been talcen, nor that the time for the taking of an appeal had expired.

In Lesamis v. Greenberg (C. C. A.) 225 F. 449, it was contended that the District Court of Alaska should have postponed the sale until the appeal to the Circuit Court of Appeals was heard. This contention was overruled. Judge Wolverton, who wrote the opinion in the Circuit Court of Appeals, on page 453, said:

“Again, it is urged that, under the motion, the court should have postponed the sale until the appeal to this court was heard. Section 508, Alaska Code (1 Fed. Stat. Ann. 148), provides that all provisions of law regulating the procedure and practice, in cases brought by appeal or writ of error to the Supreme Court or the Circuit Court of Appeals, shall regulate the procedure and practice pertaining to appeals and writs of error from the Alaska courts. The Revised Statutes of the United States provide for supersedeas, and the manner in which it may be obtained. Otherwise the courts will not ordinarily stay execution or postpone sales pending hearing on appeal.”

In Jenner v. Murphy, 6 Cal. App. 434, 92 P. 405, the statement of Judge Cooper is in point:

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Bluebook (online)
17 F.2d 383, 1927 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 973, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/general-finance-corp-v-penn-nat-hardware-mutual-pamd-1927.